Come see my other blog, no cooking just the weirdness that is my life

Neo's WorldYou won't be sorry, and it will make your family seem normal...

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Mexican Spiced Steak with Chipotle con Queso Sauce

As I sit here eating my Big Mac and contemplating what I have just cooked, I realize I should have ate what I cooked. Oh well such is life.

Whew, this one took a while to prepare and get photographed, I hope you appreciate it and show that appreciation with many checks in the mail.

OK to start out I couldn't find the type of steak I needed anywhere, and after visiting 3 stores I settled on a chuck steak about 2 inches thick and weighing in at over 2 pounds, this was going to take some disassembling.

Melt 2 TSP of butter in a medium saucepan and them add 2 TSP of flour.

Make a paste a cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes stirring constantly, then add 1 1/2 cups of milk.

OK you have made a simple white sauce, yay! Now just cook over medium/high heat until it is thick and bubbly. Then add 1 1/2 cups of shredded smoked cheddar cheese 2 TBSP of finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in abodo sauce, salt to taste. Stir and put heat on lowest setting to just keep warm. This is your queso sauce.

OK now the meat, alright. *grunts and does manly things*

Preheat your oven to 500º F. Take you favorite cast iron skillet and coat it with extra virgin olive oil. Put it in the oven to heat up as the oven is preheating. Now 500º is as Alton Brown might say, "Rocket hot".

When oven lets you know it has reached approximately the temperature of the sun carefully remove the skillet from the oven and place on burner that has been set to high. Add seasoned meat.

And let cook for about 1 minute. When that minute has expired, flip over and repeat.

Then return pan with meat to rocket oven and set a timer for 4 minutes, flip and repeat 4 minute timer. At that time remove from oven and and transfer to cutting board. cut meat against the grain on the bias in strips as thin as you can. The thinner the better, since this meat isn't the most tender, the shorter the grain fibers the more tender it will seem.

And the scene of the crime. Isn't it lovely? I don't like my meat rare but I must admit I immediately partook of the bounty.

OK also by request I made another sauce to go along with this delicious meat. It is chimichurri, sound like the name of a song from some musical about a car that I saw a lifetime ago. It turned out lovely. It is a sauce from Argentina that is very good I was eating it just by itself all night long, yummy.

Alright so a quick rundown.

1/2 cup EVOO

1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 medium onion finely chopped.You need one of these chopper babies. Very nice.

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped. (I cheat on this)

1/2 red peper finely chopped

1 small tomato seeded and finely chopped.

1 TBSP of dried oregano and 1 TBSP of dried paprika (for the love of God I don't know why but when I was making it I read parsley, which is what I used.)

I saw you post on Steamy Kitchen and felt compelled to stop by - now more than just closed friends and family have viewed you site. The Chimichurri looks amazing, my favrite thing to put on anything. I keep trying other different variations, yours will be next.